Part of being a baseball mom or dad is cheering on the team. When it comes to shouting out encouragement, my repertoire includes the following:Go (insert kid name here)!
All right (insert kid name here)!
Nice job (insert kid name here)!
Other parents, however, have a whole arsenal of things to shout and they sound so cool saying them. They're natural shouters, like they've been going to Little League baseball games for years and know all the catchphrases.
Here are a few of the bon mots I overheard at last night's game:
nice play, nice throw, nice cover, nice stop
way to hustle, way to get there, way to swing, way to get your bat on the ball
good cut, good job, good eye, good hustle
keep your eye on the ball, keep your head down, keep it going, keep it up
be a hitter, give it a ride, wait for your pitch, stay in there, wait for the great ones, gotta be in your wheelhouse
come on buddy, right down the plate, hit 'em in the chest, bring it down
eat it! be patient, take care of it.
When I try shouting these things, I just sound silly. I don't know what it is, but I can't carry it off. I'm not a convincing shouter.
Thanks to cell phones, there are other things you overhear at baseball games too. One of the parents had this little doozy of a conversation and gave several of us a good laugh last night:
"What?! You lost your wedding ring??"
pause
"Oh! You found it...that's good."
pause
"You found it in your pajama bottoms?"
pause
"You found it in MY pajama bottoms?"
So, little by little, I'm starting to enjoy baseball. The weather is perfect, the boys are playing like a well-oiled machine (most of the time), the other moms and I have developed a good rapport and a lovely standard sideline banter, even Jonah and Isaac are enjoying themselves with the other baseball siblings they see at every game.
Of course now that it's all coming together, the season is almost over.
Isn't that always the way it goes?
4 comments:
I'm not a convincing shouter either. I usually seem like a pretty quiet person at the games, so when I do shout out I feel like everyone is looking at me! I say pretty much the same things you do. What's up with the "stay in your wheelhouse?" Never heard that one before! I love the cell phone conversation. It is fun eavesdropping on people's conversations. People around me were getting an earfull I'm sure at our game on Tuesday when Ryan called me with his MCAT score. We lost again, but maybe we'll luck out and win tonight!
I have no clue what the "wheelhouse" is. I'll have to ask Ethan. The coaches say it a lot.
What does "Good cut" mean? And I'm also curious about "gotta be in your wheelhouse."
I am going to be laughing for the rest of the day about those pajama bottoms.
Shelli G., baseball genius, tells me she thinks the wheelhouse has to do with their swing radius. So waiting for the ball to be in the wheelhouse would mean waiting for it to come right to where the "wheel" of your swing is going to smack it good.
A good "cut" is when they have a good swing and it cuts through the air. This is usually said when they miss the ball, but if they'd made contact, it would have been an awesome hit.
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